Darrell Hammond Net Worth

Darrell Hammond's Quotes

• [on his troubled past] The thing that occurs to me is that abhorrent behavior is not an airborne virus. You don't get it because you sat on the wrong toilet seat in the subway station. Something has to occur to have caused it. Suddenly I realized I'm not ashamed of this at all. I've been knocked down on the canvas a number of times and I've never not gotten up.
• By the time you get on the air on 'Saturday Night Live' you're so tired you can't even remember why you wanted to be a comic, or what you ever thought was funny. But when you get that huge first laugh in this famous place, and there are literally millions of people watching, and you're affecting what they do that night, you can't get higher. It can't get better.
• [about appearing in a sketch as Bill Clinton opposite the real Monica Lewinsky] My mother called me after the Lewinsky episode to say , "You didn't really kiss her, did you?"Yeah, Ma, we all know where her mouth has been, thanks for reminding me.
• When I did Regis, I did him a little differently than Dana Carvey had. When I did Phil Donahue, I did him a little differently than Phil Hartman had. There was one sketch after Will Ferrell had left the show when I played George W. Bush, and there was a lot of pressure on me to mimic the way Will did him. Bit it wasn't possible; we're not wired the same.

Interesting Facts about Darrell Hammond

1. Graduated from University of Florida at Gainesville
2. Impersonations include Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Jesse Jackson, Chris Matthews, Regis Philbin, Sean Connery, John Travolta, Ted Koppel, Phil Donahue, Jack Nicholson, Donald Trump and Richard Dreyfuss on Saturday Night Live (1975).
3. Has met with Bill Clinton on several occasions, as the ex-President is a big fan. Clinton was the first famous person Hammond impersonated in front of the actual person.
4. In early 1989, Darrell was hired in Orlando, Florida to be the audience warm-up comedian for MTV's Game Show, Remote Control (1987) (who was shooting a season in Florida). Darrell was fired quickly because he wasn't getting the crowd excited ("warmed up") with his style of humor. He later went on to work with Colin Quinn (one of the game show hosts) on Saturday Night Live (1975).
5. Has a daughter, Mia Hammond (born April 13, 1998) with his wife, Elizabeth.
6. Holds the SNL record for the most impressions by a single cast member: 105. He also holds the record for the most times saying the show's catch phrase, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", to start the show (beating out Dana Carvey).
7. Held the record of being the longest running cast member in SNL history with 14 seasons. Retired from SNL after the 34th season in 2009 but returned to be the show announcer after the passing of Don Pardo. His record has since been broken by Kenan Thompson.
8. In 2011, he revealed in his memoir "God, If You're Not Up There, I'm Fucked: Tales of Stand-Up, 'Saturday Night Live' and Other Mind-Altering Mayhem" having been severely abused as a child, especially by his mother, and a subsequent history of drug addiction and self-harm as coping mechanisms. He also said that as a child, he had started practicing impressions and mimicry because it helped distract his mother from abusing him.
9. Used to put pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Harriet Tubman on his wall for inspiration.
10. Started performing stand-up comedy at the age of 26 and moved to New York at 32.
11. Has spoken candidly about his struggles with Bipolar disorder and Schizophrenia.
12. In his memoir, Hammond revealed that he never felt like a full member of the SNL cast because unlike his colleagues, he would not participate in writing sketches, but be asked to concentrate on impressions needed for the upcoming show. This is why he hardly ever made an appearance during the good-nights in his later seasons.